Microsoft has bought Activision-Blizzard

DrinkyBird · Jan 18, 2022

...for about $70 billion.

Yay huge media conglomerates. We have another Disney on our hands...
On the positive side though: after all the controversies during Bobby Kotick's leadership, I doubt Microsoft could be worse. It appears the plan is to kick him out once the deal is completed.

Welcoming the Incredible Teams and Legendary Franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming - Xbox Wire

Creators of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and more join Team Xbox As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We all know that gaming is the...

news.xbox.com

Microsoft buying Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70bn

Microsoft is buying Call of Duty and World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard in an astonishing, industry-shaking de…

www.eurogamer.net

amigacooke · Jan 18, 2022

DrinkyBird said:
...for about $70 billion.

Yay huge media conglomerates. We have another Disney on our hands...
On the positive side though: after all the controversies during Bobby Kotick's leadership, I doubt Microsoft could be worse. It appears the plan is to kick him out once the deal is completed.

Welcoming the Incredible Teams and Legendary Franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming - Xbox Wire

Creators of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and more join Team Xbox As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We all know that gaming is the...

news.xbox.com

Microsoft buying Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70bn

Microsoft is buying Call of Duty and World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard in an astonishing, industry-shaking de…

www.eurogamer.net

Microsost are moving on from being a defacto OS monopoly to being a gaming production monopoly.

GroG79 · Jan 18, 2022

Plz check your sources

"Microsoft said that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will continue in that role. Once the deal closes, Kotick will report to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming."

Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device - Source

Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft’s Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud. REDMOND, Wash. and Santa Monica, Calif. – Jan. 18, 2022 – With three billion people actively playing games today, and fueled by a...

news.microsoft.com

DrinkyBird · Jan 18, 2022

GroG79 said:
Plz check your sources

"Microsoft said that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will continue in that role. Once the deal closes, Kotick will report to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming."

Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device - Source

Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft’s Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud. REDMOND, Wash. and Santa Monica, Calif. – Jan. 18, 2022 – With three billion people actively playing games today, and fueled by a...

news.microsoft.com

Ah...

The xbox.com news release said nothing about Kotick, and the Eurogamer article I linked says

The deal comes after a turbulent period for Activision Blizzard, after numerous reports of employee misconduct and toxic workplace conditions and intense pressure on the company's hugely controversial boss Bobby Kotick. For now - at least until that 2023 date - Kotick will stay in place

I guess I interpreted it wrong - and didn't check to think of a press release on Microsoft's actual main site...

GroG79 · Jan 18, 2022

Oh I also have my doubts about him keeping his position in the long run...

Ozric · Jan 18, 2022

Not good, at all.

Microsoft have been up in front of the monopolies commission more than once. I'm sure they're aiming for another.

metatheurgist · Jan 18, 2022

Meanwhile, in the Odyssey suits and weapons thread someone is saying "I can't believe in 3000, there's only 3 weapons manufacturers!". If we're lucky there'll be 3 weapon manufacturers!

Navigare Necesse Est · Jan 18, 2022

Ozric said:
Not good, at all.

Microsoft have been up in front of the monopolies commission more than once. I'm sure they're aiming for another.

For me AAA has become less and less relevant over the past decade.

GroG79 · Jan 18, 2022

Navigare Necesse Est said:
For me AAA has become less and less relevant over the past decade.

Why not good?

Look at Sony; Tencent... Game studio's being bought is nothing new

Darth Ender · Jan 18, 2022

metatheurgist said:
Meanwhile, in the Odyssey suits and weapons thread someone is saying "I can't believe in 3000, there's only 3 weapons manufacturers!". If we're lucky there'll be 3 weapon manufacturers!

except in the future, there are thousands of worlds with their own governments and rules and regulations

producing weapons doesn't require magic single source technology like we could maybe say jump drives do (though even that is a stretch after hundreds of years)

In 3000, space is big enough such that it is easy to become too large. There is such a thing as too big to manage.

I would imagine the ecosystem of corporations and such in 3000 would look far more like a cartel than a monopoly. Where large corporations exist, but they are limited in their size and so have sliced the bubbles up into markets that they control and cooperate with eachother to maintain that control. Rather than become too large to manage and become unstable and weak in places where a competitor can gain a foothold or the company could eat itself thru corruption.

Navigare Necesse Est · Jan 18, 2022

GroG79 said:
Why not good?

Look at Sony; Tencent... Game studio's being bought is nothing new

Less gameplay, more gfx in a nutshell. Not what I am looking for. Also genres that just don't interest me much..

Bob McBobblehead · Jan 18, 2022

Can't think of any Activision/Blizzard games I actually like. Wish they purchased Sega or Square Enix instead.

Barking_Mad · Jan 18, 2022

metatheurgist said:
Meanwhile, in the Odyssey suits and weapons thread someone is saying "I can't believe in 3000, there's only 3 weapons manufacturers!". If we're lucky there'll be 3 weapon manufacturers!

Ozric · Jan 18, 2022

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Less gameplay, more gfx in a nutshell. Not what I am looking for. Also genres that just don't interest me much..

Whether they interest you or not isn't really the point. Buying studios that have established franchises that have had no restrictions on the platforms they've been available on for years, decades in some cases, and then restricting future titles to your own platform is poor form (I'm doing my best to stay within the rules

).

I don't really care who the company doing it is. It just so happens that it's Microsoft, who have a track record and the capital to be able to afford it.

VR Mr Teatime · Jan 18, 2022

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish

Navigare Necesse Est · Jan 18, 2022

Ozric said:
Whether they interest you or not isn't really the point. Buying studios that have established franchises that have had no restrictions on the platforms they've been available on for years, decades in some cases, and then restricting future titles to your own platform is poor form.

I don't really care who the company doing it is. It just so happens that it's Microsoft, who have a track record.

Buy something else then. Console operators have tried for decades to control the market now with their exclusivity crap. Did it work out well? I don't think so.
Just look at Epic store trying the same crap. Didn't work out so well either.
And "established franchises" is the embodiment of encrusted gameplay and development imo. I suggest looking offroad and you may find the odd treasure.

Ozric · Jan 18, 2022

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Buy something else then. Console operators have tried for decades to control the market now with their exclusivity crap. Did it work out well? I don't think so.
Just look at Epic store trying the same crap. Didn't work out so well either.
And "established franchises" is the embodiment of encrusted gameplay and development imo. I suggest looking offroad and you may find the odd treasure.

OK sure.

I enjoy playing independent studio games. I don't own a Playstation, or an Xbox. I have no vested interest in it. But if you can't see how it is wrong, regardless of if you like playing the "encrusted gameplay and development" that is worth hundreds of millions a year or not, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Navigare Necesse Est · Jan 18, 2022

Ozric said:
OK sure.

I enjoy playing independent studio games. I don't own a Playstation, or an Xbox. I have no vested interest in it. But if you can't see how it is wrong, regardless of if you like playing the "encrusted gameplay and development" that is worth hundreds of millions a year or not, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.

What's wrong with it? You have to buy into a different platform now to play some AAA game? It's no different than the past exclusivity crap.

Factabulous · Jan 18, 2022

Bob McBobblehead said:
Can't think of any Activision/Blizzard games I actually like. Wish they purchased Sega or Square Enix instead.

Diablo is pretty fun, and I hear Star Citizen got their flight model from the battlecruiser in Starcraft ...

Navigare Necesse Est · Jan 18, 2022

Factabulous said:
Diablo is pretty fun, ...

That's like over 20 years ago stuff, I think.